Food Safety Planning for Cannabis Companies

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Food safety incidents can be prevented. However, prevention requires planning, which requires the effort of everyone in a company to create a culture of quality and food safety. How exactly do you plan for food safety? Food safety planning implies the building of a food safety management system. Food safety management systems allow for an efficient management of hazards that may be present in the food by the development and implementation of pre-requisite programs (PRPs) and a food safety plan, while supported by management commitment. So, let’s take a closer look at each of these building blocks:Radojka Barycki will lead a plenary session titled, “Cannabis: A Compliance Revolution” at the 2018 Food Safety Consortium | Learn More

Management Commitment

The development and implementation of a food safety management system requires financial, equipment, and technically sound personnel in order to be successful and sustainable. The management team of any cannabis product manufacturer must be committed to food safety, so the needed resources to develop and implement a food safety management system are provided. Management commitment creates a culture within the operation that supports, sustains and continuously improves food safety.

Pre-Requisite Programs (PRPs)

Pre-requisite programs are procedures that establish the minimal operations conditions to produce safe and quality products. Pre-requisite programs are the foundation of food safety and must be developed and implemented prior to creating a food safety plan. They keep potential hazards from becoming serious enough to adversely impact the safety of products produced. Pre-requisite programs include but are not limited to:

Document Control

Supplier Verification Programs

Raw Material Receiving (ingredients, processing aids and packaging)

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs)

Preventative Maintenance (PM) Program

Calibration Program

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Environmental Monitoring Programs (EMPs)

Water Management Programs (WMPs)

Allergen Management Program

Standard Sanitation Operating Procedures (SSOPs)

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Storage and Transportation Procedures

Crisis Management

Traceability

Recall

Record keeping

Waste Management

Training

Food Safety Plan (FSP)As you can see, food safety planning requires the development and implementation of a lot of programs.

A food safety plan is a documented systematic approach that follows the Codex Alimentarius HACCP Principles to identify, prevent and minimize to an acceptable level or control hazards that may be present in food and that can cause an illness or injure the consumer. The first step in this systematic approach is the formation of a food safety team, which main responsibility is to identify the scope of the food safety plan and to oversee all of the activities associated with the plan (e.g. monitoring, verification, validation, etc.) After the food safety team is formed, the steps outlined below are followed in order (systematically):

Product Description

Product Intended Use

Development of the flow diagram

Verification of the flow diagram

Conduct a Hazard Analysis

Identify Critical Control Points (CCPs) or Preventive Controls

Establish Critical Limits

Monitor Critical Limits

Establish Corrective Actions

Establish Verification Procedures

Establish Record Keeping Procedures

As you can see, food safety planning requires the development and implementation of a lot of programs. Therefore, I highly recommend that you hire a food safety consultant that can guide you through this process.

About The Author

Experienced leader in Quality Assurance, Food Safety Management and Training. Radojka possesses extensive knowledge of ISO and GFSI standards including ISO 18001 and 14001, SQF and FSSC 22000; FDA regulations, including FSMA rules and requirements as well as HACCP, testing and analysis, calibration, and auditing processes. She is an approved FSMA Preventive Controls for Human Food instructor and a qualified SQF Practitioner/Trainer. Radojka is a graduate of Central University of Venezuela, BSc. Bioanalysis; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, MSc. Food Science. She currently owns Nova Compliance, a Food Safety consulting company that serves the Cannabis Industry.

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